Google Mobile Management / MDM for Android Tablets

[IT_Man_Dan]

Afternoon all,

 

We use Google Apps for Education and are about to receive a number of Android tablets for use by students and teachers on a trial.

 

I'm looking at MDM solutions to restrict what users can do on the devices etc but I have no previous experience of mdm. The solution we choose needs to be free and quick to setup.

 

I have been looking into Google Mobile Management as a possibility.

Is anyone on here already using it?

 

Can you use it to limit what apps users can install (eg only allow access to private channel on Google Play)?

Can you push apps out to multiple android devices with it?

Can you restrict settings etc on the devices to stop students messing around with them?

 

I've only been looking at it briefly but it looks fairly basic as to what you are able to do with it.

 

If I'm right in thinking it is just a basic MDM can anyone recommend any others that I should consider for Android devices please?

 

Thanks

[edutech4schools]

Can you use it to limit what apps users can install (eg only allow access to private channel on Google Play

 

This summer Google are working on Play for education which should allow staff to deploy or restrict apps.

 

You could also look at LearnPad - The Tablet Computer Designed for Education they sell the software seperatly and give you a website that you can install apps and change the profiles etc. I downloaded the software for a trial and was very impressed.

[IT_Man_Dan]

Thanks for your reply.

Google Play for Education looks good for deploying apps etc but from what I can tell it doesn't offer any tablet lock down facilities, you would have thought that Google would have thought of this as handing out unrestricted tablets to students is a big NO in my eyes. I'm going to have a look at the LearnPad offerings now to see if it is more suitable to our needs.

 

Thanks

[IT_Man_Dan]

As I look into this further I've found another solution that looks like when twinned with Google Apps mobile management it might provide exactly what I'm after. It's called TabPilot and provides a front end/overlay that allows users to only access certain things that have been released to them.

 

I just need to stop students installing apps, playing games, changing backgrounds etc. I'd like to think that as Google Play for Education is developed that this will be taken into consideration but in the meantime I think when the tablets arrive I'll be trialling TabPilot.

 

Regards

Dan

[edutech4schools]

Having looked at TabPilot website I would go with learnpad. LP does everything listed on the TabPilot and more like mapping server drives etc.